Mining lease allocation: Communities want minister, SPDC probed

Oil producing communities in Delta State have protested what they described as “fraudulent allocation of oil mining leases,” and called on the National Assembly to commence investigation into the matter.

The protesters, who besieged the gates of the National Assembly in Abuja on Thursday, barred people from entering the complex and lamented the deliberate exclusion of indigenous right of first refusal and the absence of transparent and open competitive bidding of OML 2, 26, 30, 34, 41, and 42.

The protesters comprised representatives of the Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko and Ndokwa communities of Delta State.

In a petition addressed to both the Senate and House of Representatives, and signed by 20 members of the communities, they claimed that they had suffered long years of deprivation and degradation arising from oil exploration.

The petition read in part, “We are the representatives of the oil producing communities in Delta State, who have the customary title to the various areas where the upstream oil and gas assets are located and wherein various oil mining leases were recently allocated and/or acquired.

“We heaved a sigh of relief when we learnt that the Shell Petroleum Development Limited was divesting its interest in the various OMLs and the government had ordered that the MLS be thrown open for bidding by any interested company.

“But this relief was cut short when the said mining leases were surreptitiously granted without open bidding process and granted to non-indigenes without regards to the doctrine of rights of pre-emption and/or first refusal being granted to members of our communities, who have the financial and technical capability to acquire the mining leases.”

They also blamed the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, other officials of her ministry and Shell for their predicament.

The petition also alleged that two days before President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Federal Executive Council in 2011, officials of Shell and Alison-Madueke secretly transferred production rights in four large oil blocks, OMLs 26, 30, 34 and 42, to Mr. Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, a company that neither tendered nor bid for the blocks.

The communities stated, “By this deal, 60 per cent of NPDC’s 55 per cent stake of these assets is about five billion barrels, which when calculated with the 2013 crude oil benchmark, comes to $380bn or N58.9tn. This figure is exclusive of the four trillion cubic feet of gas asset in the blocks valued at $15.72tn.

“The ‘game’ behind this deal is brought sharply into focus by noting the fact that on OML 26, 30, 34, and 42, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s no-bid approach via the so-called ‘Strategic Alliance Agreement,’ fetched the Federation Account an upfront cash payment of little more than $50m as initial entrance fee from Atlantic Energy, while SPDC’s open and competitive bidding process, though excluding indigenes of the area on the other hand, got $1.3bn from Heritage Oil Plc for its 45 per cent Joint Venture beneficial stake of the same block.”

Presenting the petition on the behalf of the communities, Mr. Ayiri Emami, said the true market value of the OML 30 asset divested to Atlantic Energy by NPDC, if the open and competitive bidding process mandated by the Public Procurement Act had been followed, would not be less that $800m.

we thank GOD ALMIGHTY for the oil but all of you sitting on it without using the proceed
for the betterment of the country like industries hospitals good roads and other infra-structures have a case to answer before the giver..its a ? of time.but i advise u to repent b4 its 2late.

God- Dey

Na de same people, corrupt, wicked and selfish political elites and their cohorts. My happiness is that all the amassed wealth, power etc. ends here on earth; thank God we humans are not God.

Spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa, saying his colleagues passed a vote of confidence in Dr. Bukola Saraki’s senate leadership in order to spite President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress leadership.